


Mercurial

by ChiaRoseKuro



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Cabin Fic, Car Accidents, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff, Forests, Friends to Lovers, Gift Exchange, Hot Chocolate, Humour, Interrupted Kissing, Introspective Relationship Study, Kissing, M/M, Occasional Forays into Backstories, Phone Calls, Romance, Slice of Life, Snow, Third Wheels, antagonistic friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:53:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22049674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChiaRoseKuro/pseuds/ChiaRoseKuro
Summary: Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Karin may not be the best of friends, but they’re certainly not the catty love rivals that they’d been back in high school. They’re friendly enough to carpool on a cross-country trip from New York to Los Angeles, where they’ll be meeting up with Karin’s cousin and his boyfriend to celebrate Christmas and the new year—But when the engine splutters midway through Colorado, Sakura and Karin find their chances of spending a relaxing Christmas with Naruto and Sasuke dwindling by the hour… and with little to think about in the forest, with little room to get much distance from one another, Sakura comes to a few realizations that might… change things.(or: Sakura has Feelings, and Karin does nothing to make it any easier on her. Also, Gai might quite possibly have the worst timing alive, but Kakashi’s not going to complain—so why should anyone else?)
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura & Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura/Karin, Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai | Might Guy, Karin & Uchiha Sasuke, Karin & Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34





	Mercurial

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dragonpyre](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonpyre/gifts).



> Considering that Fluff and Slice of Life usually leave me scratching my head whenever I attempt to write it... there's probably more relationship development introspection and SakuKarin arguing than anything else, but it was still a great deal of fun to write. If you're not a fan of same-sex couples, antagonistic friendships and Sakura's protracted gay panic, though, you might not find this very fun to read - so I'd suggest pressing the 'back' button. If you still read ahead, get offended and send a rude comment, then you'll probably get even more offended when I laugh at your rude comment and bury it beneath a snowpile. Because, really, why would you.
> 
> Special thanks to Katie for providing the focal characters (Sakura, Naruto and Kakashi), the pairings (SakuKarin and KakaGai; SasuNaru just snuck in on its own, because - SasuNaru fan, oops), the genres (Fluff and Slice of Life) and the word prompts (snow, forest, cabin and hot chocolate - the forest isn't so obvious, but hopefully the rest is), [Kat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat) for hosting the Secret Santa exchange on her Discord server, and [Sloaners](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beetlebee) for organizing said exchange. I've been straying pretty far from Naruto these days, so it was definitely nice to get back into writing it more - so please enjoy this last story from me for the decade!

* * *

“We’ll be fine, you said,” Karin grumbles under her breath, glaring at the smoke curling lazily from beneath the bonnet. “It won’t break down, _you said_ —well, if _this_ doesn’t look like it’s broken down, then I’m going to eat my _glasses,_ Sakura!”

“Oh, and just _who_ was the one that invited themselves along for the ride?” Sakura snaps right back, shoving the hood of her parka back with a pronounced scowl. “You know you could’ve just saved your time and money by buying a plane ticket!”

“What, and miss out on the joys of a cross-country drive in your _rust bucket?_ ”

“You’ve been hanging around Sasuke too much, you know,” Sakura admonishes, though she has to duck her head to hide the faintest of smiles. “Did you know that sarcasm makes your voice drawl?”

“Well, at least I don’t sound like—like a know-it-all!” Karin sniffs, but _her_ smile’s all too evident in her voice.

Because they might’ve started out as rivals in love, too enamoured by Sasuke’s pretty looks to notice his antisocial personality, but it hadn’t taken them long to realize the truth. The fact that they’d almost ran into Naruto and Sasuke vigorously playing tonsil hockey in an out-of-the-way corridor had helped, too—and in between commiserating over their superficial attraction to a gay man, things had just… worked themselves out from there.

Though, to be fair, their relationship hadn’t particularly changed much after they’d gotten over their hopeless crushes. Something about being laughed at for falling in love with one’s gay childhood friend hadn’t really sat well with Sakura at the time—or, at least, until she’d brandished Karin’s boasts about her supposedly functional gaydar in her face.

But even Sakura could admit, if only to herself, that they’d been _more_ than catty to each other during their sophomore year. It hadn’t been until they’d graduated high school that they’d finally stopped slinging barbed comments at each other, mellowing a little from a mixture of maturity and how utterly _sappy_ Naruto and Sasuke could be, and…

The feelings that’d crept up, after that, were far different to the ones she’d held for Sasuke. _But Karin doesn’t need to **know** about them,_ Sakura scolds herself, scowling down at the spluttering engine with all the ire it doesn’t quite deserve, _so don’t you start thinking about it now._

It’s never really all that effective, not when Karin’s all sharp edges but all the prettier for them, and just—feelings, _argh_.

“Well?” Karin asks, slicing through Sakura’s increasingly tumultuous thoughts, and heaves a sigh at whatever expression’s on her face before drawling, “Are we going to have to hitchhike our way to California? Because whatever you’re doing to that engine isn’t _working_ —unless you _meant_ for it to belch out noxious black smoke.”

“Oh yeah, I’m forever messing with my car engine so it’ll pollute the atmosphere on demand,” Sakura deadpans, catching Karin’s eyes before she rolls hers in a clear, exaggerated motion.

But as much as she doesn’t actually _want_ to call her car a _rust bucket_ , not in the least because it was the very first thing she’d bought with her own money…

“If you laugh, I’m going to make you hitchhike on your own,” Sakura threatens, before she draws in a deep breath and heaves a deeper sigh. It takes a bit for the words to struggle through the lump in her throat—but Karin is oddly silent, and Sakura takes advantage of that to mutter, “The car’s done for.”

There’s a few moments when Sakura hears nothing but her own breathing and the dying splutters of the car, so far gone that only a seasoned mechanic would be able to diagnose whatever the issue is. She’d helped out at an old boyfriend’s shop once, unafraid of getting her hands dirty if it meant spending more time with him _and_ learning something useful, but all she can tell is that the engine should _not_ be doing what it’s doing right now. Karin, forever uninterested in what she’d deemed ‘the dregs of society’, would be even more useless when it came to fixing her car, so…

When Karin skirts the length of the car and comes to stand behind Sakura’s shoulder, mouth open to say something that’d no doubt be snide and _entirely_ unwelcome, Sakura sighs again before saying, “Look with your own eyes, if you don’t believe me.”

And before Karin can so much as squawk at her tired, brusque dismissal, Sakura gets to her feet and returns to the driver’s seat, slamming the door on whatever words her travelling companion might have to say.  
  


* * *

_  
“Oh my god, you’re not **hurt** or anything right?”_

“We caught the problem before the car ploughed into a snowbank or T-boned another car, Naruto—and I’m speaking to you, aren’t I?” Huffing a sigh as Naruto laughs awkwardly over the phone, Sakura glances out at the falling snow and adds, “Honestly, it’s like you _forget_ that I’m a fully qualified medic.”

There’s a scoff beside her, but it’s so quiet that Sakura can pretend she doesn’t hear it over Naruto’s loud protests—so that’s exactly what she does. Perhaps she should’ve stuck to the main freeway instead of going through a little-known mountain pass… but she’d wanted to save time with a shortcut she’d heard of from a friend.

 _And now we’re here,_ Sakura thinks bitterly, tuning out Naruto’s spluttering and yelling, _stranded in the snow_. There’s no telling when the conditions will ease up and she can call a mobile mechanic over to fix her car—and for all that she’s in the final component of her medical training, money is scarce. Just _thinking_ about the bill is enough to make her want to sigh aloud, but…

 _“Hey hey, Sakura, didja hear what I said?”_ Naruto asks, cheerful for all that his words should be put-upon. _“You’re in Colorado, right? Near the Glenwood hot springs?”_

“Thereabouts,” Sakura replies curtly, pulling herself back into the moment.

Naruto can be annoying—and it had taken Sakura almost _forever_ to make him stop treating her like an extension of himself—but he’s also the one who went backpacking with his insane godfather across the entire _continent_ right after they’d graduated high school. If anyone’s going to know where she can find a place to stay for the night, or however long it takes for someone to fix her car up? Then it’s him, and Sakura will just have to deal with his boundless enthusiasm if she wants quick, reliable help.

Thankfully, Naruto actually _does_ know a place where she and Karin can stay for a time—and it’s even owned by someone she knows, too. Kakashi hadn’t been much of a TA, forever coming to their _ethics_ class near the end of the seminar with his nose buried in a porn book, but he’s apparently hooked up with—

“Wait, did you just say _Gai?_ As in, Lee’s _fitness-crazed_ _uncle_ Gai?”

 _“Yeah, who would’ve thought?”_ Naruto laughs, even as she and Karin share a horrified look. Karin might be doing her utmost to pretend she’s not eavesdropping, but _everyone_ who attended their college knows Gai—if not because they’d been roped into his actual suicidal training regimes, then because they’ve heard his voice booming across campus and wisely _fled_.

As much as Sakura wants to wallow in the sudden shock and confusion at Kakashi’s lazy ass getting together with _Gai_ , of all people, Naruto’s already nattering on with a bright, _“So yeah, they’ve gone camping near the area or something, but I just got the bastard to text them and apparently there’s a spare key at Kakashi’s cabin.”_

 _“Just make sure you don’t leave a mess—otherwise, he doesn’t really care,”_ a deeper voice says right after, and Sakura nods before she realizes that Naruto—and Sasuke!—can’t see her.

Karin’s probably smiling at her unseen gaffe, but Sakura doesn’t bother looking over in her direction as she holds the phone closer to her mouth and asks, “What about my car, though? I know nobody can really drive it away, but…”

 _“It’s not too far from where you are right now,”_ Naruto cheerfully informs her. _“I’ll have to ask Kakashi if there’s a garage or not, but you can probably push it there! Only a couple hundred feet, and it’s all mostly downhill from what the bastard’s showing me.”_

Sakura nods again, ignoring both the fact that the boys can’t see her and what sounds like a minor scuffle on the other end—but that’s just Naruto and Sasuke, forever fighting for all that they’re happily together. “Glad to know you’re not underestimating my strength, at least,” she replies drolly, but she’s already halfway out the car and glancing down the road.

For all that the snow hasn’t let up, there’s also not much of it dusting the road—and Sakura can hear Karin getting out the other side too. “I’ll call you back if I need more help or something, alright?” she says, not bothering to wait for a response before she’s adding, “don’t strangle each other before I get there!”

And with that rather charming comment, Sakura hangs up mid-yell and glances over the top of her car at Karin. It’s nice that she’s wordlessly volunteering to help—

But then, of course, she has to ruin it with a sniffed, “Well? Are we going or not, Sakura?”

“It’s almost like _you_ were the one who figured all this out,” Sakura mutters under her breath—but when Karin arches a brow at her, all she does is smile back with an expression of sublime innocence.

Arguing can happen later, _after_ they’re settled inside Kakashi’s possibly-questionable cabin. For now… Sakura has a car to push down a hill, and she’d much rather do it before the snowfall gets any heavier.  
  


* * *

  
The only reason Sakura isn’t sweating profusely when they finally make it to the cabin is because it’s too bloody _cold_ for it. There’s enough snow underfoot that the last few steps had crunched with it, though it’s still light enough that she can see decently enough—but there’s possibly snowflakes melting against her skin, and _that_ isn’t a pleasant sensation at all. And she can’t even take off her parka, because the wind would bite into her thin undershirt and she’d most likely catch a cold, knowing her luck.

Moping around her apartment like a sad, sniffly ghost on New Year’s Day was one day too many, thank you very much. Even if that means she can’t do much about the sweat beading on her forehead, beyond rolling up her sleeves and folding back her beanie a little more—Sakura’s experienced worse. All she needs to do is hold on a little longer, get inside and make sure it’s not too draughty, and then she’ll be free to strip down as much as she likes.

She might’ve been drenched in sweat had it not been for Karin, though, who at least kept her whinging to a minimum. She would’ve been faster still if Karin’s luggage hadn’t been weighing down her car so much—but in between overnighting in a forest cabin on her own and overnighting with someone that’s infuriating in more ways than one, Sakura knows what she’d choose.

Not that she’d ever _tell_ Karin as such, of course, but…

“Go on ahead,” Sakura tells Karin, and gestures in the general direction of the cabin before adding, “Naruto said the keys should be beneath the largest flower pot.”

Because Naruto had _said_ that the cabin was fully stocked, given that Gai’s generally inexplicable need to reconnect with nature every now and again sees it in use throughout the year, but it’s still _Kakashi’s_. She might’ve only taken a single semester of ethics, but she may as well have stayed home and studied by herself instead of waiting for Kakashi’s lax, eternally tardy ass to teach _anything_ of substance. It’s why she’s hefting two duffle bags onto her shoulders and dragging a small luggage case behind her when she finally makes it into the cabin, instead of just the two duffles.

A quick look around at the interior reveals that it’s fairly cosy—beyond an ajar door that reveals a sliver of a bathroom and two closed ones that most likely lead to bedrooms, everything’s lumped together in one massive room. There’s firewood beside a fireplace and chimney that Sakura suspects actually _works_ in the traditional way, a squashy lounge flanked by squashier armchairs, a rather scuffed-looking dining table with four wooden chairs arranged around it, and a dingy-looking kitchenette behind it.

All in all, it’s nothing too impressive, and Sakura dumps their bags by one squashy armchair just as the bathroom door swings open. She spies an old boiler behind Karin, just before the door swings closed behind her again, but it’s hard to think about the antiquated look of it when Karin’s scowling and muttering, “Who even _uses_ diesel generators in this day and age? Is Kakashi an actual _relic?_ ”

“Diesel generator?” Sakura asks, even as she zips open her own duffle and rifles through it.

“Yes, and it _stinks,_ ” Karin sniffs, coming over to grab her duffle and look through it too. “There’s a tank filled to the brim with diesel, but the machine itself? Didn’t have a drop to it until I topped it up!

“Maybe there’s enough to last through the night, _if_ we’re conservative.” Sakura glances up at Karin then, brows furrowed at the news, but Karin’s preoccupied with extricating her bag of toiletries from her duffle. “There’s some tinned food in the cupboards, I suppose,” Karin adds with another little sniff, “but honestly? I’d rather just stick to our own food.”

“Good thing we brought a few cups of instant noodles, then,” Sakura wryly replies.

Karin nods at that, equal parts morose and irritable—but it’s not long before she’s sallying off to wash her face, and Sakura’s left to stare at the unlit fireplace.

It’s not ideal, that much is obvious. They would’ve been crossing into Nevada had her car not broken down, just a few more hours from Naruto and Sasuke and a few of their other mutual friends who’d moved across the country, and it… it _sucks_ , that they’ll miss out on the entirety of Christmas eve with the boys. Even if she and Karin don’t find Naruto so annoying or lust after Sasuke anymore, they’re close enough to consider each other family.

And given that Sakura’s parents had flown to _New Zealand_ , of all places, until the year had come and gone…

“How long are you planning to—uh, Sakura, are you alright?” Karin asks from right beside her, and Sakura flinches before she can stop herself.

It’s a sign of just how _upset_ she is by all this—the car breaking down, being stuck in a tiny forest cabin with its environmentally unfriendly diesel generator and its old-looking furniture—that Sakura can’t even muster up a smile. “I’ll get over it,” she tells Karin, shrugging a shoulder as she turns away from Karin’s strangely piercing gaze. “It’s—there’s really nothing to worry about.”

Maybe that would’ve worked, in the year and a half it took for them to shift from outright antagonism to half-friendly ribbing—but they’re adults now, and friends for all that neither of them had ever really said it aloud. There’s a moment when Sakura really _does_ think Karin’s believed her pathetic, bald-faced lie, as footsteps lead away from the fireplace…

But then there’s the banging of cupboard doors opening and closing, the clatter of a kettle on the ancient cabin stove and Karin’s voice above it all, almost-shouting, “I’d be a failure of a scientist _and_ a human being if I couldn’t tell you were lying, Sakura! Don’t pull that crap on me when we both know it’s not going to work.”

Before Sakura can work herself into a properly indignant state and yell back something snappy to _that_ , though, the distinctive smell of gas pervades the air. Whatever she’d wanted to say dissolves into a fit of coughing—and by the time she’s done, Karin’s already taking out two worryingly chipped mugs and saying, “You’d think the qualified medic out of the two of us would know better than to bottle up their feelings, but maybe they don’t teach you that unless you become a shrink.”

“ _Psychologist,_ Karin, the proper term is _psychologist_ ,” Sakura snaps, but she glances up just in time to see Karin offer _her_ a half-shrug. “Really, I’ll be _fine_ ,” she adds with a huff, digging her nails momentarily into her palms before she unclenches her fists and gets to her feet. “Just give me a few moments—”

“So you can, what, properly sulk in private later?” Sakura doesn’t need to see Karin’s face to know that she’s rolling her eyes, but Karin turns around and says in the gentlest voice she’s ever heard from her, “Look—I don’t like your rust bucket, but it’s still _yours_. You could’ve also charged me the price of a cross-country coach service or something for tagging along with you, but my wallet’s still as fat as the day we left New York behind.”

A flash of something passes across Karin’s face—frustration, Sakura would say, except she’s _never_ seen an expression like this before—but then she’s back to her familiar exasperated frowning when she sniffs, “I’m sure I don’t have to spell it out for you, intelligent as you are. Now sit back down before you go into hysterics or something.”

“I’m not going to _hyperventilate_ from your words _,_ ” Sakura hisses, but she finds herself going back to the armchair anyway. She tells herself that it’s because there really _isn’t_ anywhere more comfortable to sit in the cabin, not unless she ventures into a bedroom and tries the mattresses, but…

Karin’s usually a lot more dismissive, _especially_ when it comes to the likes of Kiba and Suigetsu. And sure, she’d shown a bit of that when she’d all but chivvied Sakura away from whatever she’s brewing on the stove, but—she’s not exactly the comforting sort.

In fact, beyond her godawful simpering over Sasuke—and _Neji_ , of all people, some months after they’d caught Sasuke shoving his tongue down Naruto’s throat—she’s never really said anything… gentle. Kind, perhaps, though there were times when the bite in her words wasn’t as sharp as it usually was, but this—

It almost feels like Karin _cares_ , in whatever way Karin cares about those who aren’t blood-related or more well-off than her, and it’s such a dizzying thought that Sakura almost drops the mug being pressed into her hands.

“Oh my god, _please_ don’t hyperventilate while you’re sitting down,” Karin dryly huffs, but she doesn’t let go of Sakura’s mug until she has a firm grasp of it. “And what’s with the weird look?” she asks seconds later, settling in the opposite armchair and taking a sip from her own mug.

“This…” Sakura breathes in the comforting scent of chocolate and milk. “Isn’t this hot chocolate?”

“Congratulations, your eyes and nose function as they should.”

 _Okay, yes, it was a dumb question,_ Sakura privately admits to herself, but perhaps the better question is—

“Why?”

“Why… is there hot chocolate in your cup? Why are you staring at me like I’ve suddenly sprouted horns or a forked tail??”

Sakura flushes, unaware that she’d said it aloud until Karin was midway through her response, but she tightens her grip on the mug and mutters, “I thought you said there were only tinned goods here.”

“I said there were _some_ tinned goods, not that there were _only_ tinned goods,” Karin huffs, but it’s lacking its usual bite—and her gaze isn’t combative at _all_ when she asks, “but really, what’s this about?

“It’s hot chocolate. There’s only chocolate powder, milk and water in there. Just—” Karin gets up from her armchair with a sigh, sets her own steaming mug on the ground and moves forward to cradle Sakura’s hands. “Drink it, okay?” she says in that strangely gentle voice. “Worry about everything later, if you really _have_ to be a worrywart.”

And with Karin’s face that close to hers, glasses doing nothing to conceal the concern in her eyes… it’s all too easy to lean in, and Sakura presses her lips to Karin’s before she’s aware of her actions.

She’s probably applied lip gloss recently—maybe even as recently as that second trip to the bathroom. It’s not exactly comfortable to have her face pressed against Karin’s glasses or have their noses squashed together, but it’s nothing like the boys she’s kissed before. It’s not even like the time she and Ino experimented with things, her best friend that’d remained her best friend after how _awkward_ it’d been to try and go further than kissing and hugging, because…

Sakura had liked her boyfriends, and Ino had been pretty enough that her heart had fluttered a few times, but Karin’s not beautiful or handsome in a way any of the others were. She perpetually looks like she has bed hair, what with the way she styles it, and her tongue is sharper than even her cutting glares. The feelings she’s had—they weren’t meant to do anything. They weren’t meant to _amount_ to anything, not after the camaraderie they’d settled into.

But here she is, kissing Karin anyway. Here she is, pulling back after Karin didn’t respond in any way—not with a single movement of her lips, not with a single breath puffing through them—and she expects to see…

Disgust, maybe. Confusion, most certainly. Maybe even hatred, that the person she’d been travelling with was a _lesbian_ when society was still acclimating itself to same-sex couples.

Except Karin’s licking her lips with a little flush riding high on her cheeks, lashes fluttering in a way that makes Sakura’s mouth go dry. “Did you just…” Karin whispers, breath puffing against Sakura’s lips with how close they still are, but then she shakes her head and says, “Never mind, stupid question.”

“You’re not,” Sakura shakily begins, throat constricting when Karin looks into her eyes again. _You’ve already done it—just get it over with,_ she scolds herself, and tries again with a less shaky, “You didn’t… hate that?”

“Hate that?” Karin echoes. “Sakura… are you asking what I _think_ you’re asking?”

Even with the return of Karin’s usual combativeness, even with the hard glimmer in her eyes—her hands are still cradled around Sakura’s, and she draws from their warmth to mumble, “You didn’t exactly _respond_ , you know.”

“Sakura—” Karin turns her head and sighs, expression partially hidden by her hair, but then she turns back and says, “I could’ve been in LA with the boys _days_ ago. Hell, I could’ve just let you sit there and mope over your car and your driving plans and your _everything_ , but I made you hot chocolate so you could _relax_.

“And sure, maybe you could say that it’s just a _friends_ thing, because I sure as hell thought that you only tolerated me coming with you because we were finally _friends_ or something. Maybe I’m just rambling because I’m coming up with excuses. Who knows, right?” Karin smiles wryly at that, features softening in a way that makes her relationship with Naruto that much clearer, but then she pulls it all back into her usual haughty expression.

“I’m only going to say this once, so you’d better listen closely,” Karin says, voice lowering into a whisper as she leans in to brush her lips against Sakura’s earlobe. “If this were any other situation? I would be _pinning_ you to that armchair and kissing you senseless, Sakura Haruno.”

Sakura doesn’t even realize she’d whimpered until Karin pulls back, something smug and maybe a little amused dancing in her eyes, but then she’s pulling back and picking up her mug as though the past few moments hadn’t just happened. “Drink your hot chocolate, Sakura,” Karin says, nodding at the cup in her hands.

And for lack of anything better to do, Sakura nods mechanically and does just that.

It’s still fairly hot, but Sakura doesn’t taste any of it on the way down. All she does is swallow until there’s no more left—and when she puts her empty mug down, Karin’s still sipping at hers.

This time, Sakura’s the one to walk over and kneel down in front of Karin, but she doesn’t copy Karin’s actions or words exactly. Instead of cupping Karin’s hands in her own, she gently takes the mug out of her hands and sets it down, too—and then she cups her hands around Karin’s cheeks, which heat beneath her touch.

“I never thought you’d back down so easily—and if I recalled right, weren’t you the one that stayed still while I kissed you?” Sakura asks, smiling as Karin’s pupils dilate. “Maybe I should pin _you_ to the armchair and kiss you senseless,” she teases, smile still bright and mischievous on her face.

It takes a moment for Karin’s eyes to blink then narrow, but there’s definitely a spark of challenge in her eyes when she replies with a murmured, “I’d like to see you _try_.”

Sakura leans forward as she slides Karin’s glasses off her face, tilting her head ever so slightly to make the angle a little better for their next kiss—

But before their lips can meet again, there’s the crash of a door behind them and a loud voice booming out, “My wonderful youthful friends, my eternal rival and I have returned to aid you in your time of greatest need!”

“Yo,” Kakashi says right behind him, popping out to give them a little wave, but Sakura’s a little preoccupied with _flinging herself across the room_ and trying _not_ to scream bloody murder. Karin doesn’t look all that composed either, glasses askew on her face from where she’d snatched them back and shoved them on again—but either Kakashi’s denser than a mountain or he’s pretending at blindness he doesn’t possess, because he slips around Gai and hums, “Hot chocolate, huh? I hope there’s more where that came from.”

“Hot chocolate is, indeed, perfect for the current weather!” Gai exclaims, striding past the dishevelled tableau in the living area as he makes a beeline for the stove. “And I do believe that—yes, the kettle has hot water remaining!”

Gai descends into raptures over the thought of hot chocolate as he clatters about, but Kakashi shuts the door behind himself with a silent hand and hums, gaze deceptively mild as he takes in Sakura’s and Karin’s positions. He doesn’t say anything, though, only tucks his hands into his pockets and slouches over to the sofa, and not a single word passes between them while Sakura gets up and creeps back to her armchair.

If she’d thought Kakashi would ignore everything like Gai seemed to be doing, though…

“It’s nice that you’re getting into the Christmas spirit,” Kakashi says, barely audible over the sounds of rather vigorous stirring, “but bedrooms exist, you know.”

And when Gai returns, almost dropping the fresh mugs of hot chocolate on the ground as he worries over Sakura’s and Karin’s beet-red faces, it only makes things that much more awkward.

 _Stupid crush,_ Sakura scolds herself, fending off Gai’s overwhelming concern with a weak smile. _Stupid, **stupid** feelings._

But when she next catches Karin’s eye, in between Gai’s cheerful recount of their absolutely insane _mountain hiking_ and Kakashi’s sparse, laconic input, Sakura’s treated to a fleeting smile and a mouthed, _we’ll talk later._

Which, considering the past few minutes?

Sakura nods back, ignoring the way Kakashi’s eyes crinkle at the gesture, and settles in for a _long_ night of whatever Gai wants to discuss. They’ll talk later, maybe even see if they can try for a better kiss, and then…

She cradles her mug close, smiling down at her lap as she does so, and mentally rearranges her plans for the next few days. The drive back, at least, would be far better than the one here— _and maybe I can even convince Karin to like this rust bucket of mine, before we get back_.

**Author's Note:**

> For further author notes and other things related to this fic, feel free to check out my [blog](https://chiarosekuro.wordpress.com/). Alternately, potential prompts and other sorts of inspiration can be found on my [Tumblr](https://chroku-n.tumblr.com/) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/chroku_n/) if that tickles your fancy instead - or, if you'd like your own shiny new oneshot, you can request one from me [here](https://chiarosekuro.wordpress.com/commissions/).


End file.
